Hi, I just moved over to Aptosid from Arch and was really impressed with the xfce install - very polished work and nice app selection. After using Arch I felt spoiled by it all. I wrote a detailed account of my openbox install on Aptosid.

I hit the kernel problem here, and I just wanted to comment on the closed-source issue. I don't think anyone objects to the argument that open-source is the way to go - I certainly don't like binary blobs. But the reality is that it's hard enough to get hardware support on Linux, and hard to get manufacturers to give us anything, without the kernel config narrowing the options even more.

I took the Aptosid dev's advice and gave nouveau a try. Worked okay, and I only use 3D for google earth, but tv-out support I need, and that is listed as "TO DO" for my (middle-aged N50-based) card. So nouveau isn't an option - I bought that card because it did what I needed. And I chose NVidia because of bad experience with ATI drivers in Linux.

The other issue is that nouveau will take time to keep up with newer hardware released, which means some users will need to use NVidia's drivers.

So I hope we can have the option of still running Aptosid with the closed-source drivers, even though I prefer the open-source approach by far.

And I chose NVidia because of bad experience with ATI drivers in Linux.

I used to agree with you 100% about six months ago. Then cleary (a previous team member who many will remember around here) finally convinced me to give ATI a go for my next desktop build. The opensource Radeon drivers are more than sufficient for both 2D and 3D these days and have the added benefit of not having to hope that each new kernel release isn't going to break your system. I urge you to have a look at this table [ http://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature ] before buying another video card.

Thanks - very good to hear ATI is doing better. Hopefully my current card will last awhile, but I'm keen on getting rid of The Blob. I also will be helping someone purchase a laptop for linux soon, and I was avoiding ATI, but now I'll rethink that.

So I hope we can have the option of still running Aptosid with the closed-source drivers, even though I prefer the open-source approach by far.

Currently, the best option is to install nvidia driver from towo's frickelplatz repo.
deb http://frickelplatz.de/debian/ sid main contrib non-free
same way as in manual, but from this repo, instead of debian's.

A question - is there some hope to have this patch reverted in the next aptosid kernels? I think this is a big limitation for users with nvidia cards and nouveau isn't always a solution. I'm aware of towo's repository, but being forced to use a third party repository to be able to use such common hardware is not the best thing (in my opinion, obviously).

p.s. I'm aware and i totally disagree with nvidia's closed policy, the point of my question is the user experience

Carnophage

Post subject:Posted: 01.04.2011, 13:15

Joined: 2010-09-12
Posts: 59

Status: Offline

AFAIK, there is no chance for that, from what I see vanilla kernel -39 will include it also. The only chance to get things going as they should is to patch nvidia-kernel-source accordingly.

OppaErich

Post subject:Posted: 01.04.2011, 15:13

Joined: 2010-09-13
Posts: 28
Location: Essen, Germany
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And I wouldn't call towo third party, he's a member of the team. But it's your machine, do want you want with it.

DeepDayze

Post subject:Posted: 01.04.2011, 15:19

Joined: 2010-09-11
Posts: 616
Location: USA
Status: Offline

Towo's trusted and he knows what he's doing. If anyone had a problem with any package just let him know and he'll fix it

dario

Post subject:Posted: 01.04.2011, 20:24

Joined: 2010-11-27
Posts: 63

Status: Offline

I never said i don't trust towo (i use his repository too), i only wanted to say that the aptosid team's choice of applying the patch without directly providing solution wasn't the best choice. Obviously this is only a personal opinion.

Just to keep things perfectly clear, towo is a highly valued member of the community, but is not a member of the aptosid dev team, nor has he expressed any interest in becoming one (for as long as I've been around anyways).

_________________#aptosid-art ftw!
(what would cleary do?)

slam

Post subject:Posted: 02.04.2011, 11:40

Team Member

Joined: 1970-01-01
Posts: 607
Location: w3
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To clarify even more, towo was invited to the Aptosid dev team some time ago, but did not accept.
Greetings,
Chris